FBI agent slain - wife of drug suspect charged

Lawmen had come to arrest her husband

Dan Nephin, Associated Press

Published 4:00 am, Thursday, November 20, 2008

Photo: Keith Srakocic, AP

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Christina Korbe covers her face as she is taken from the Allegheny County Police headquarters in Pittsburgh, Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2008. Korbe, the wife of drug suspect Robert Korbe has been charged with killing FBI agent Sam Hicks who showed up at the couple's house near Pittsburgh to arrest her husband Wednesday morning. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic) less

Christina Korbe covers her face as she is taken from the Allegheny County Police headquarters in Pittsburgh, Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2008. Korbe, the wife of drug suspect Robert Korbe has been charged with killing ... more

Photo: Keith Srakocic, AP

FBI agent slain - wife of drug suspect charged

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The wife of a drug suspect has been charged with killing an FBI agent who showed up at the couple's house near Pittsburgh to arrest her husband.

Allegheny County police said Christina Korbe was charged with homicide in the shooting death Wednesday morning of agent Sam Hicks. He and other law enforcers had gone to the home in Indiana Township to serve a warrant on Robert Korbe as part of a drug sweep.

Hicks, 33, had been with the FBI since March 2007. He was a former Baltimore police officer and school teacher with a wife and 3-year-old son.

"Special Agent Hicks made the ultimate sacrifice that any law enforcement officer makes for his country," Michael Rodriguez, agent in charge of the Pittsburgh FBI office, said in a statement read to reporters.

"He served with honor and bravery and will be greatly missed by his colleagues here in Pittsburgh and throughout the FBI," he said.

FBI Director Robert Mueller said: "The loss of Sam Hicks is a tragedy. Our hearts and prayers go out to Sam's family and the members of the Pittsburgh field office."

Robert Korbe appeared briefly in federal court Wednesday. He was one of 35 people charged in a 27-count drug-trafficking indictment unsealed the same day; it accuses the defendants of conspiring to traffic cocaine and crack from October 2007 through September.

The agent's shooting was not discussed at the hearing. Korbe was represented by a public defender but told the judge he planned to hire his own attorney.

Christina Korbe was not named in the drug indictment.

The last FBI special agent killed in the line of duty was Barry Lee Bush, who was accidentally shot and killed by a fellow agent outside a bank on April 5, 2007, in Readington, N.J., according to the FBI.